﻿﻿﻿Sixteen AgainMedia: 35mm Photographs2014-2015Artist Statement:At the tender age of 18, I packed my bags and moved out of my family’s home for the first time. Not only was I moving out for the first time, but I also took a gamble and decided to move out of the state entirely, to a city I’d never even been to, where I didn’t know anyone. I lived in Portland, Oregon for five years where I attended college, spent my early 20s and learned how to become an adult on my own.

After college, I decided to move back home to Los Angeles, California. Having spent five years away, I felt like I had to relearn how to be an adult. I had to reevaluate what “home” even meant to me. Transitioning back to Los Angeles was not easy. I felt like I was a different person in an entirely different city; I felt displaced and disconnected.

Rummaging through old boxes and photo albums at home one day, I came across my mother’s old 35mm point and shoot Olympus camera from my childhood. Feeling lost in a place I once called my home, I’ve embarked on a new adventure with my mother’s old “family camera.” This old 35mm point and shoot camera is a key element to this series; It acts as an agent of nostalgia, capturing new memories with the lens that recorded my adolescence. I’ve recovered past memories by revisiting and documenting places of my childhood, reconnecting with old friends, as well as relearning the streets and creating new memories in a city I once used to call mine. ﻿﻿﻿